1. Home
  2. CBI came looking for file on Jaitley: Kejriwal

CBI came looking for file on Jaitley: Kejriwal

December 15, 2015

New Delhi, Dec 15: In the midst of his biggest confrontation with the Centre yet, a furious Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused it of targeting him in a daylong CBI raid at Delhi Secretariat and claimed the real reason for the action was to look for a file of alleged graft in Delhi's cricket body that "traps" Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.kejriwal

Jaitley dismissed the allegations, dubbing it "rubbish".
The Delhi Chief Minister also made a stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for unleasing the CBI while called him a "psychopath and coward".

"It has become necessary to reveal that why did the CBI come to my office today and which was the file they were looking for. This is the DDCA file under which Arun Jaitley is getting trapped. (Ye file hai DDCA ka file jiske andar Arun Jaitley phas rahe hain)," the Delhi Chief Minister claimed.

Rejecting the allegations, Jaitley said, "This morning's statement appeared to be prima facie incorrect. But the evening one seemed to be absolutely rubbish and I do not think I need to respond to this rubbish," Jaitley said.

Kejriwal said his government had set up an inquiry committee to probe alleged irregularities in DDCA which had submitted its report and he was to set up a Commission of Inquiry to carry out a detailed probe in the wrongdoings in the cricket body.

"Jaitley was the DDCA President for many years and I had set up a committee to probe all the corruption that has taken place during his tenure. The committee has submitted its report and a commission of inquiry was to be set up over it, and a file pertaining to it was in my office," alleged Kejriwal.

The Delhi Chief Minister said he was not scared of the Centre's action.
"I am not scared of you. You do not know what I am made of," he told reporters, resolving to continue the fight.

The CBI had earlier clarified it carried out searches at the office of Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar's office at the Delhi Secretariat and not that of the Chief Minister. The action was in connection with allegations against Kumar of favouring private companies in awarding government contracts from 2007-2014.

The Chief Minister said the sole motive of the raid was to "target me" and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the nation for his "misdeeds", saying only then he will tender apololgy for calling him "coward and a psychopath".

After a meeting with his Cabinet colleagues and senior AAP leaders that lasted around two hours, Kejriwal said he will continue to fight till his last breath.

"They have no interest in the contracts awarded by Rajender. If he had awarded contracts in 2007, what were you doing till 2015 Modiji? It's been long that your government has come.

"I want to tell you Modiji, you have scared others through the CBI but Kejriwal won't get scared. You know what am I made of. I will fight for the country till my last breath but will never get intimidated. Modiji's use of the CBI and other means won't scare me, I want to tell him clearly.

"They say that my choice of words were incorrect, but your actions are bad. My words may be bad, I was born in Siwan village of Haryana. Maybe my words were bad. But your actions are bad. You apologise to the nation for your misdeeds and I will apologise for my words," he said.

Talking to reporters at Sisodia's residence, Kejriwal wondered why CBI conducted raids "on the most honest party and the honest Cabinet" of the country and termed as "complete lies" the version of CBI and the Centre.

"They say that the raid was against my principal secretary Rajinderji for favouring a particular firm in the 2007-14 period while he held the post of Education Secretary, VAT commissioner, IT secretary. This is coming across as a lie to me.

"But the action does not seem to be over this issue. If Kumar had awarded wrong contracts in his capacity as education secretary, the CBI should have raided the education department as well.

"The CBI won't get any files related to those alleged contracts in the office of the Chief Minister as the CM's office does not keep record of files older than ten to fifteen days," said Kejriwal.

The Chief Minister said if CBI was looking to probe irregularities in award of contracts, it would have raided offices of those departments as well as other officials who had taken such decisions.

"Those alleged files would be available in the record room of the education department. If related to VAT, it would be available in the record room of the VAT department. But they did not raid education or VAT department or IT department. They have not even sought the files they are talking about from the Delhi government," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Bloomberg
July 27,2020

New Delhi, Jul 27: India’s coronavirus epidemic is now growing at the fastest in the world, increasing 20% over the last week to more than 14 lakh confirmed cases, according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker.

Infections in the South Asian nation of 130 crore people have reached 14.3 lakh, including 32,771 deaths, India’s health ministry said, with daily cases close to a record 50,000 on Monday. India is only trailing the US and Brazil now in the number of confirmed infections, but its growth in new cases is the fastest.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are among the states where the maximum number of daily cares are being reported. The world’s second-most populous country has been ramping up testing, with 515,472 samples taken on Sunday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Still, India and Brazil have some of the world’s lowest testing rates, with 11.8 tests and 11.93 tests per 1,000 people respectively, compared to the US with 152.98 tests per 1,000 and Russia with 184.34, according to Our World in Data, a project based at the University of Oxford in the UK.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 21,2020

The Retailers Association of India (RAI) has said that ad hoc lockdowns by state governments are impacting the businesses of already-stressed retailers, along with hurting the economic revival of the country.

In a statement, the body of the organised retail industry said that the long road to recovery for the Indian retail industry continues to meet stumbling blocks with numerous restrictions being imposed at the state and local levels.

"Total lockdowns in some places and limited operational hours and days in several others are creating setbacks for retailers as the already stressed retail businesses are getting further interrupted and in turn, dampening consumer sentiment," it said.

According to RAI, although the intentions are that of citizen safety and social distancing, the recent instances of local lockdowns and ad hoc restrictions being imposed in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are having a distressing impact on retail businesses.

Retailers are already facing huge setbacks in terms of payment of wages and rentals due to very low sales of about 40 per cent as compared to last year, thanks to the extended lockdown, it said.

Contesting the restrictions on operating hours, Sandeep Kataria, CEO, Bata India said: "Restricted shopping time can lead to unnecessary overcrowding of stores, which is unfavourable towards the personal safety of both store staff and customers. Longer operational hours will support recovery for retailers as well as help adhering to social distancing norms."

Arvind Mediratta, MD and CEO, METRO Cash & Carry India said that these lockdowns will create severe inconvenience for all citizens as they also bar operations of food and grocery retail and wholesale stores.

Such hastily-implemented decisions by states undermine investor confidence and would come in the way of making the country "aatmanirbhar" or self-reliant, he said.

Voicing the concerns of retailers, the RAI has submitted representations to various state and local authorities that puts forth recommendations to get businesses and life of consumers on the track to recovery.

It has said that authorities should mandatorily allow essential shops including kiranas, general trade shops, supermarkets, hypermarkets and wholesalers to operate every day of the week until 9 p.m. to cater to the daily needs of the customers.

It has also sought ensuring uniform and regular opening of all categories of retail for full working hours while following stringent hygiene practices and adhering to social distancing norms. This will help avoid overcrowding outside stores as demand will get distributed over all days of the week, it said.

The industry body has also asked the local authorities to open malls in all states. Malls can ensure a safe shopping experience wherein safety measures are taken by both, the mall authorities and the retailers, it said.

Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI, said: "The need of the hour is concerted efforts by all stakeholders. While retailers are doing their bit by following stringent hygiene practices, the policymakers too need to support to ensure economic revival across the country. Consumption is important for the country and supports the business environment."

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 19,2020

New Delhi, Jun 19: Petrol price on Friday was hiked by 56 paise per litre and diesel by 63 paise a litre, taking the cumulative increase in rates to Rs 7.11 and Rs 7.67 per litre respectively in less than two weeks.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 78.37 per litre from Rs 77.81, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 77.06 a litre from Rs 76.43, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

This is the 13th daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.

In 13 hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 7.11 per litre and diesel by Rs 7.67 a litre.

The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.

Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of fall in international oil prices to two decade low.

International oil prices have since rebounded and oil firms are now adjusting retail rates in line with them.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.